Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Winston Trew has just been arrested for mugging. It's 1972 and the crime has recently made its way to Britain from the United States. Dangerous thugs, replicating their American counterparts, have made the city of London their hunting ground - so Winston's eventual conviction is a win for the police, and for the press. The problem is, 22-year-old Winston is completely innocent. Do you have a question for Tim Harford and Rachel Botsman about trust? Please send it in to tales@pushkin.fm [tales@pushkin.fm]. For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com [http://timharford.com/]. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

In the bleak Russian winter of 1959, nine experienced hikers led by Igor Dyatlov set out on an expedition. None of them made it back alive. When their campsite was finally discovered, it told a chilling story: their tent was slashed open, bodies scattered across the snow. The hikers' injuries were as baffling as they were gruesome. One had had his head stoved in. Bits of bone had been driven into his brain. Others were missing their eyes and their tongues. Had the hikers angered the local Mansi tribespeople? Had they witnessed a secret military experiment? Or had something even more strange and sinister unfolded on Dead Mountain? For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com [http://timharford.com/]. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Two airplanes have just collided on the runway at Tenerife Airport. While no one on the Amsterdam-bound KLM plane survives the resulting fireball, 71 Pan-Am passengers and crew make it off their plane. But could it have been more? Why did so many Pan-Am passengers die, even though they weren’t injured by the initial collision and their plane was still on the ground? For a full list of sources see the show notes at timharford.com [http://timharford.com/]. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

“Evacuate the airport, we’ve planted bombs,” a terrorist tells the telephone operator at the airport in Gran Canaria, in 1977. By the end of that day, 583 people will have lost their lives – but not to a bomb explosion. The planes are diverted to the neighboring island of Tenerife. Loaded with passengers, they’re forced to sit on the hot tarmac for hours. Meanwhile, the flight crews rely on air traffic control to keep them updated. Two Boeing 747s are waiting for thick fog to lift so that they can begin the journey home; they're anxious to receive clearance to take off. One of them has just taken on a hefty 15,000 gallons of fuel. What unfolds next is the most deadly aviation accident in history. For a full list of sources see the show notes at timharford.com [http://timharford.com/]. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Cautionary Tales returns with new episodes on January 10th. Lizzie J. Magie (played by Helena Bonham Carter) should be celebrated as the inventor of what would become Monopoly. But, even though she had a patent, her role in creating the smash hit board game was cynically ignored. Discrimination has marred the careers of many inventors and excluded others from the innovation economy entirely. Could crediting forgotten figures such as Lizzie Magie help change that? For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com [http://timharford.com/].  See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.